Chronicling a Dynasty on the Make New Light on the Early Ṣafavids in Ḥayātī Tabrīzī’s Tārīkh (961/1554)

Abstract

This article studies Qāsim Beg Ḥayātī Tabrīzī’s unpublished account of Ṣafavid history, which has long been considered lost. Ḥayātī’s account—dedicated, in 961/1554, to Shah Ṭahmāsp’s sister, Princess Mihīn Begum (d. 969/1562)—spans the period between the formative years of the Ṣafaviyya Sufi order under Ṣafī al-Dīn Isḥāq Ardabīlī (d. 735/1334) and the early years of the reign of Shah Ismāʿīl (907–30/1501–24). Emphasis is given to the way in which it fills in the gaps of our knowledge insofar as the pre-dynastic and early dynastic phases of Ṣafavid history as well as the administrative history of the Ṣafavid shrine in Ardabīl are concerned.